Alfred Dupont Chandler Jr (19 18-2007) is famous for his research on corporate history. To a great extent, he initiated the research field of enterprise history (which Americans call business history). In English abbreviations, BC is BC, and AC is ad. American Businessweek once used this word to praise Chandler: "In business history, BC means before Chandler." So the era of Shang history is also called AC (after Chandler). Compared with Chandler's AC, someone pulled Drucker out, calling it the era of managing AD (after Drucker). From this, it is not difficult to see Chandler's academic status. It is said that when Chandler began to study corporate history, there were only 13 relevant scholars in the United States, but when he died in 2007, there were 1300 scholars engaged in this research. If Max Weber, a German sociologist, provides an ideal organizational model for management, then Chandler, an American corporate historian, provides a realistic organizational evolution trajectory for management.

Chandler was born 60 days before the end of World War I, that is, 19 18 in September. During this period, American companies went abroad and entered Europe and Asia. Chandler later decided to study the history of the development and expansion of American companies, which catered to the trend of the times.

Chandler's life experience has a great influence on his academic career. His mother Carol? Chandler is the daughter of a senior manager of DuPont (from which the word "DuPont" in Chandler's name comes), and her father is a sailor full of passion and ideals for life. The sailor once led his family to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador for a year along the route traced by Charles Darwin to the origin of species. Perhaps it was his father's exploration spirit that influenced Chandler to track the evolution history of the enterprise for more than 60 years. Chandler's great-grandfather is Henry Vanum Poole, editor-in-chief of American Railway magazine, and he is very famous in the history of management. Of all the relatives, Poole's academic influence on Chandler is the most direct. At that time, the first-hand raw materials that Chandler relied on to study corporate history were Poole's legacy. In addition, Chandler is also a legend in American history, Henry? A distant relative of Ford. Recently, Chandler's grandfather has been the chief chemical engineer of DuPont from 1903 to 19 16, and helped DuPont complete its first reorganization in history. Chandler was born in a family with so many corporate celebrities, and his views on big companies will naturally be branded by the family. It may be Chandler's motivation to study the history of the company in the future to sort out the ins and outs of the big company and interpret the mystery of its development.

Chandler was born a genius at writing narration, and stood out from the crowd when he was a teenager. At the age of six (some say seven), his father gave him an American History Reader suitable for sixth grade primary school. According to his own later memories, he read 19 times, and he was determined to become a historian at that time.

As a teenager, Chandler is a piece of rough jade, and he still needs the guidance of experts to become a real master. As a student, Chandler studied at Essex College, University of North Carolina and Harvard University. 1940 After graduating from Harvard University, Chandler joined the US Navy and served in the photographic task force of the Atlantic Fleet. In the army, Chandler's specific job is to analyze and interpret aerial photographs, which requires not only a macro grasp of the entire aerial photography area, but also a keen observation of specific details. This kind of training in working methods is conducive to his future study of enterprise history. In addition, during his military service, Chandler deeply felt the efficiency of the government bureaucracy, which gave him a personal experience of the operation of large organizations.

After World War II, Chandler returned to Harvard Graduate School with his wife and three children. Harvard's academic atmosphere and academic tradition have created Chandler's unique academic quality and profound historical accomplishment. He studied under the famous sociologist Talcott Parsons when he was studying for his doctorate. Under the guidance of Parsons, Chandler studied the works of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, and thus became interested in sociology. In particular, the "role theory" and "structural function theory" put forward by Parsons had the greatest influence on him, which laid a solid foundation for his later study of enterprise history by using sociological theory. In addition, he also participated in the research center of entrepreneur history established by the famous economist Schumpeter and became a young research assistant. Schumpeter's theory of economic development, especially the theory of "innovation", also had a far-reaching impact on him.

Talent, family background, experience, famous teachers and so on. Pave the way for Chandler's academic career. During his Ph.D. at Harvard, he lived in the home of his great-grandfather, Poole. His great-grandfather left a lot of first-hand information about railway construction, which prompted Chandler to choose the topic of his doctoral thesis as Poole's biography. Thus, a book about Henry V Poole: a business editor, analyst and reformer with his great-grandfather as the theme was born. On the surface, this is a biography, but in fact, its content is far beyond the scope of biography, and it is a masterpiece in the history of early American enterprise development. 1956 is officially published by Harvard University Press. In the writing of Poole's biography, Chandler formed his own unique "historical induction method" and "comparative research method" History itself is inseparable from the basic literacy of multidisciplinary comprehensive research, and he benefited from Parsons and Schumpeter in this respect. Poole never thought that the pile of materials he left behind would become a ladder for future generations to enter the academic hall. Writing a doctoral thesis is the beginning of Chandler's academic career. During his doctoral studies, he also participated in the editing of Roosevelt's letters.

1952 After graduating from Harvard University, Chandler went to teach at MIT. During his days at MIT, Chandler's academic style gradually took shape. In addition to revising and publishing Poole's biography, he also helped Alfred Si Long Jr., president of General Motors, write his autobiography My Years in General Motors.

From 65438 to 0962, Chandler published Strategy and Structure: Several Chapters of the Growth of American Industrial and Commercial Enterprises. This masterpiece was later called the first part of the Qian trilogy and became famous in academic circles. This book, represented by DuPont, General Motors, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and Sears Company, discusses the formation and improvement of the management structure of business division system. When early American enterprises competed for market share through vertical integration and horizontal integration, the functional structure of centralization was gradually established. After World War I, with American enterprises going abroad on a large scale and implementing overseas expansion and diversification strategies, the management structure has also changed, which is the management structure of the business department invented by the above four companies.

From 65438 to 0963, Chandler transferred to Hopkins University to teach. During his teaching in Hopkins, he still worked tirelessly on the study of enterprise history, wrote Railway: the largest enterprise in America, and participated in the editing of Eisenhower's collected works. 197 1 year, Chandler was recalled to the graduate school of Harvard University to take charge of the enterprise history research of the school. 1977 published the second part of Qian trilogy, Visible Hands: Management Revolution of American Enterprises. By quoting a large number of original materials, this book demonstrates the key changes in the birth and growth of American enterprises-the emergence of hierarchical management teams and the separation of management rights and ownership. Behind this change, the pursuit of reducing costs and improving competitiveness is the leading factor. Chandler believes that under the premise that the efficiency of management coordination is greater than that of market coordination, it will lead to the emergence of enterprise management levels.

Since the "progressive movement" period, Americans have been full of vigilance against big companies. In the eyes of most people in America, the history of big companies is filled with evil. This view of "being rich and heartless" accords with Marx's assertion that every pore of capital comes into this world with blood and dirty things. However, in The Visible Hand, Chandler uses detailed data and analysis to show that American big companies are neither evil robbers nor angel-like good people, they just seek victory in the market competition. The company's various strategies and tactics are nothing more than various adjustments made to adapt to market conditions. When the market is unstable, enterprises tend to be vertically integrated and horizontally combined; When the market is stable, if the efficiency of the market is improved, enterprises will tend to divest non-core businesses.

After a long academic accumulation, from 65438 to 0994, Chandler published the last part of his trilogy-Scale and Scope: the Motive Force of Industrial Capitalism. At this time, Chandler is an old man who is nearly eighty years old, and he has expanded his research field to the global field. After detailed textual research, he discussed the reasons for the rise and fall of enterprises in the United States, Britain and Germany from the 1980s to the end of World War II, and put forward the concept of "organizational ability". He believes that organizational ability is obtained through continuous investment in production, marketing and management. Only by gaining strong organizational ability can enterprises establish strong entry barriers, or break through the entry barriers established by pioneers in market competition. Once an enterprise has acquired this organizational ability, even if it temporarily loses its market due to war and other reasons, it will quickly recover its market share in a short time. This can be seen from the huge contrast between British, French and German enterprises in the world market after World War I..

From 65438 to 0993, Chandler turned his attention to four high-tech industries after modern transformation: consumer electronics industry, computer industry, chemical industry and pharmaceutical industry. In this study, Chandler made a detailed study of the development of these industries from the middle of the 20th century to the beginning of the 20th century with his rigorous style, which made his research more practical. In the research of high-tech industry, Chandler further deepened the concept of "organizational ability" he founded, emphasizing organizational ability based on three types of knowledge-technology, function and management. In Chandler's context, the success of modern enterprises depends more and more on the "comprehensive learning ability" based on technology and function. This does not mean that management is no longer important, but that management is no longer the main variable of enterprise competition after the establishment of the management structure and manager status of the division. Chandler believes that the development of modern and contemporary high-tech enterprises lies in the acquisition and maintenance of comprehensive learning ability. With learning ability, enterprises can win in the market competition, otherwise they will be eliminated.

In the book Shaping the Industrial Age: The Extraordinary Course of Modern Chemical Industry and Pharmaceutical Industry published in 2005, Chandler summarized his research on enterprise history. In his view, looking at the three industrial revolutions, we can draw the following two conclusions. First of all, the long-term leaders of every industrial revolution have followed the advantage strategy and achieved success. From this, it is not difficult for us to understand the connotation of large-scale acquisition and divestiture activities of large American companies in the 1970s and 1980s. Secondly, the formation of various industries (especially high-tech industries) takes about 50 years. During this period, enterprises must seize the opportunity to make relevant investments, form and maintain their comprehensive learning ability, and build barriers to entry. Once they miss the opportunity, their chances of successfully entering this industry will be very slim.

Chandler was 87 years old when he finished the special research on these four high-tech industries in 2005. However, this corporate history expert did not give up his creation because of his age, and he still worked tirelessly on related research. On May 9, 2007, he died at the age of 90 while sorting out the biography of his wife's grandfather William Ramsay.